“Twelve months since,” said Hannah with sisterly satisfaction, “you’d ha’ been ready to creep into your grave over t’ job. It isn’t all to t’ bad.”
“Not by a long way,” added the father. “I’m o’ Jagger’s way o’ thinking, and I lay all t’ blame for this mischief on yon lad; but choose what harm he’s done he’s made a man o’ Jagger, so we’ve no ’casion to be over hard on him. He’ll tire o’ these kids’ tricks i’ time, and maybe repent on ’em. As for getting hold of his throttle, it ’ud suit me better to get hold of his ’at has him on t’ fork.”
“There isn’t a ha’porth o’ difference between ’em,” said Jagger emphatically.
“Yes, there’s this much,” corrected his father; “ ’at t’ Old Lad’s i’ t’ sperrit and t’ young lad’s i’ t’ flesh, and while a man’s i’ t’ flesh there’s hope for him; and I’d sooner break t’ lad off his bad ways than I’d break his back for him. T’ devil knows a good hammer when he sees it, and a good hammer’s a good friend if we could steal it away. I could like to do that bit o’ thieving.”
“They’ve black hearts that comes off o’ that black moor,” said grannie, shaking her head in deprecation of her son’s optimism; but he laughed the implication away.
“There’s few black hearts ’at’s fast dye, mother. They’ll wash clean, and if we could get t’ sun to ’em they’d maybe bleach.”
It was uneven warfare, for they were all against him. Grannie shook her head and muttered to herself; Hannah told her father he didn’t know his man, and proceeded to enlighten him by recalling incidents which she assumed he had forgotten and Jagger listened with an expression of tolerant amusement until his sister had finished, when he said—
“It’s Christmas time, Hannah. There’s to be peace and goodwill, you understand! a sort of a truce: God and t’ devil sitting down at one table!”
He spoke in a tone of good-tempered derision, but avoided his father’s eye in which he would have seen an unexpected look of humour.
“Now, that’s smart, isn’t it? You’ve wiped the floor wi’ your old dad this time! I suppose you never heard o’ God and t’ devil sitting down together? Reach t’ Book across, Hannah!”